The Plain Dealer's argument that foreign companies have a head start on U.S. firms is in itself an indicator that the United States has fallen behind in this field. Why would we fund the foreigners and subsidize them so they can pull even further ahead of us?

The U.S. economy is in dire straits. We need jobs -- living-wage jobs -- period. Our manufacturing sector is on life support, and The Plain Dealer wants to rush to give U.S. tax dollars to foreign companies. This is irresponsible and borders on traitorous. These stimulus dollars would be a shot in the arm for the U.S. economy -- from the development and design of the technology, to the manufacture and installation of the hardware.

"I won't vote for a bill if the banks have control of it," Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, told CNN.

Brown sits on the Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee and is among a group who are worried Democrats have given away too much to woo Republican support for the bill. "Republicans are doing the bidding of their benefactors, the banks," he said.

"We're in a wait and see mode," fellow Banking Democrat Jeff Merkley, D-Oregon, told CNN. Earlier this week, Merkley and four other senators introduced a bill that would change the rules of the game on Wall Street far more dramatically than the proposal Dodd was said to be negotiating.

"We watched investment houses blow up, now there's even greater risk in the system," said Merkley, who insisted Congress needs to fix the entire "framework" that allowed big banks to make risky bets putting other peoples money at stake.

Lake Erie, the shallowest and warmest of the Great Lakes, is home to more than half the lake system's fish. Millions of people visit Lake Erie, spending an estimated $1.1 billion a year on lodging, travel and food specifically to catch sport fish like walleye and perch. In total, the lake is estimated to generate $50 billion in economic activity each year.

The bill authorizes the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) and the appropriation of $475 million per year. The GLRI is an EPA-led, interagency effort to target the most significant problems in the region and jumpstart restoration efforts to protect, maintain, and restore the chemical, biological, and physical integrity of the Great Lakes. This legislation would authorize the GLRI and direct that recommendations of the Great Lakes Regional Collaboration Strategy of 2005 and the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Action Plan be considered by the EPA, which determines fund allocation. President Obama's fiscal year 2010 budget provides $475 million for the program.

In 2008 six people in eastern Crawford County were diagnosed with food-borne illnesses. Four more cases took place in Ashland County.

In 2009, the Galion Health Department had 30 suspected cases of foodborne illness, but Environmental Health Director Stephanie Zmuda said none of them were confirmed.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed comprehensive food safety legislation last year. However, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, announced Wednesday he is working for swift approval of the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, while seeking to make improvements to the bill.

"Too many Ohio families are already struggling to put food on the table. They shouldn't also have to worry about the safety of that food," Brown said. "But we've seen a flood of imported food from countries that ignore food safety, and our own system has not been able to keep pace with changes in food production.

Brown is the author of the Food Safety and Tracking Improvement Act (S. 425), which would establish a nationwide tracking system through the FDA to identify and track the sources of tainted food.

"Our first responders put their lives on the line every day across Ohio," Brown said. "These funds ensure that firefighters in northeast Ohio have the resources they need to perform their jobs safely."

AFG grants are offered to fire departments and emergency medical service organizations that are unaffiliated with hospitals to enhance their ability to protect the health and safety of the public.

U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown, a Democrat, recently joined a group of 13 fellow lawmakers and met with President Barack Obama and several Cabinet officials to talk about climate change legislation.

Attending the meeting were Energy Secretary Steven Chu, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson.

"My message to President Obama was simple: done right, clean energy legislation can be a jobs bill," Brown said. "A great risk of a weak bill is that U.S. industries incur increased costs, and as a result, cheaper products would be imported from abroad. That's unacceptable and won't create jobs or reduce emissions,” he said in a statement.

It's the Congressional Gold Medal - the nation's highest civilian honor. It was awarded Wednesday to Jean Springer, 89, of Hyde Park, and about 180 other living veterans of the Women Airforce Service Pilots, or WASP, program.

Excluded from flying in combat - and not even considered part of the U.S. Army - Springer and the other female pilots transported military personnel, towed targets for gunnery practice or shuttled planes from factories to the bases where they were needed.

These pioneers of women in aviation "blazed a trail in the sky," said Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, a Texas Republican who co-sponsored the bill to honor the women.

The corps was unceremoniously disbanded in 1944, and the pilots were sent home - on their own dime. They were denied veterans' benefits - or even veterans' status - until 1977. Some continued careers in aviation. Many, like Springer, simply moved on with their lives, telling enthralled children years later of their harrowing adventures.

In a Wednesday letter to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and top White House economic adviser Lawrence Summers, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) expresses his concern about the two current vacancies on the Fed's seven-member Board of Governors and the impending vacancy to be created with the June departure of vice chairman Donald L. Kohn.

With the three vacancies, President Obama can shape the direction of the Fed for years to come. Brown, acutely aware of the opportunity -- he refers to the openings as the equivalent of openings on the U.S. Supreme Court -- is pushing for nominees who will fill gaps in areas he feels have been ignored.

"The evidence presented to the Committee about the role that Fed policy decisions played in the financial crisis and the economic downturn has led me to conclude that the Fed's monetary policy has focused almost entirely on controlling inflation rather than maximizing employment," Brown, the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee's Subcommittee on Economic Policy, writes. "And that the Fed has too often put banks' soundness ahead of its other responsibilities."

He pointed out however that the bill needs to promote the "competiveness of U.S. manufacturing through targeted retooling assistance and border equalization measures. A great risk of a weak bill is that U.S. industries incur increased costs, and as a result, cheaper products would be imported from abroad. That’s unacceptable and won’t create jobs or reduce emissions.

"When 70% of the clean energy components are manufactured outside the U.S., something needs to change. I've talked with manufacturers and workers across Ohio, and I am worried about our long-term manufacturing competiveness. We can't trade our dependence on foreign oil for Chinese-made wind turbines. The right investments in domestic manufacturing and energy policy will help rebuild our nation's manufacturing base and create jobs."

In a statement, Lieberman announced his bill drew the support of Democratic Sens. John Kerry (Mass.), Dick Durbin (Ill.), Charles Schumer (N.Y.), Frank Lautenberg (N.J.), Sherrod Brown (Ohio), Tom Udall (N.M.), Bob Casey (Pa.) and Russ Feingold (Wis.). Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who caucuses with the Democrats, also signed on as a co-sponsor to the legislation.

“I am honored that nine more of my colleagues have decided to co-sponsor this bill, which will end discrimination against American soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines on the basis of their sexual orientation,” Lieberman said in the release, adding that the bill would help “increase military readiness and maintain the high standards of conduct we expect of our service members.”

The 90-minute session, which included seven Senate Democrats, six Senate Republicans and one independent, represents a major effort by Obama and his senior advisers to forge a bipartisan agreement on how to combat climate change.


Brown, D-Ohio, said a consensus emerged among the 14 senators that "we want to find a way to do this, a consensus that we need to deal with our dependence on foreign oil, and a consensus that this needs to be a jobs bill."

"When the president of the United States convenes people, there is momentum created," Brown said. "This created momentum and brought some Republicans and Democrats together. But it’s just a step."

The Ohio Department of Transportation has said it already studied whether to add a lane for bicyclists and pedestrians and had decided against it for various reasons -- cost, maintenance and user safety, among them.

"But at the direction of the governor, we will take a renewed look," said Scott Varner, ODOT spokesman.

What would potentially be the narrowest lane across the $450 million bridge has drawn the biggest debate for politicians.

ODOT has said $85 million in federal stimulus money has already been allocated for the program, based on an environmental impact statement that did not include a bike lane.

To go back now and ask the Federal Highway Administration to revise the statement could put Ohio's federal funding in jeopardy, ODOT has contended.

That did not sit well with U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich, who last month wrote the highway administration asking it to allow ODOT to resubmit the impact statement without threat of losing funding. ODOT, meanwhile, did not relent.

Then last Thursday, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown took a different approach, writing to Strickland and urging the governor to get involved and ensure ODOT includes a multipurpose route across the bridge.

"It would be penny-wise and pound-foolish to build this bridge with only cars and trucks in mind," Brown wrote to Strickland.

"It is imperative that when construction begins on the new Inner Belt, a bike and pedestrian path is included," Brown said.

A study by the Brookings Institution released today, March 9, found that nearly half a trillion dollars — $446.7 billion — in federal domestic assistance money is tied to census data.

Most Dayton-area residents should receive their 10-question census form in the mail soon. U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, citing the Brookings Institution figure, stressed Monday how important it is for every household to complete the form and return it.

A 2 percent undercount in Montgomery County could mean the loss of $134 million in federal funding during the next decade, according to the Brookings study. The same undercount could mean losses in other counties: $35 million in Greene, $23 million in Miami, $10 million in Preble, $12 million in Darke and $38 million in Warren.

“The census determines the future of our state,” Brown said at a Cleveland rally Monday. “It determines the resources, services and funding we’ll have available to ensure our children grow up with the education and medical care they need. It determines the funding we’ll have to keep our communities safe and ensure our small businesses can grow.”

That’s essentially the message delivered in Cleveland Monday by U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown. Brown joined the "Help the Home Team, Be Counted".

Sponsored by the Cleveland Foodbank, Greater Cleveland United Way and Neighborhood Connections, the rally was to raise awareness about the importance of being counted in the 2010 U.S. Census.

More than $400 billion each year is allocated to states based on census data. Brown says that for every person missed in the count, Ohio loses $12,000 over ten years. If 2% of Cuyahoga County goes uncounted, that means $300,000 lost over ten years.

In pointed language, the authors urged Brown to back a bill that would prevent the U.S. Environmental Agency from regulating the greenhouse gasses thought to cause climate change, warning in near-apocalyptic terms that "the future of Ohio may depend on this vote."

The letter was signed by 25 executives, right down to the head of J's Pizza Market in Mentor. And it vividly illustrates the pressure that Ohio lawmakers, whose state gets about 86 percent of its electricity from coal-fired power plants, face from industries to oppose new restrictions on emissions of carbon dioxide - either from Congress approving new laws or the EPA issuing regulations.

Although environmentalists are wary of Brown's support of technology designed to allow utility companies to burn Ohio coal without emitting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, they largely back the senator, who likes to boast that "Ohio really is on the road to being the Silicon Valley of alternative energy."

Intelliwave learned this week it will received $1.116 million in stimulus grant funds and $1.162 million in stimulus loan funds that will be used during the next three years to bring broadband service to about 11,232 households and businesses in the three-county area.

"This award represents true economic stimulus for the region," said Chris Cooper, managing partner of Intelliwave. "Not only will Intelliwave offer high-quality technical job opportunities to residents here, we will also expand economic opportunities within the communities that will now have access to lower-cost, higher-speed Internet service."

About 2,200 applications were submitted nationally for a piece of the $7.2 billion stimulus pie being set aside for expanding broadband access.

U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, agreed that expanding broadband is critical to future economic development in Ohio.

Brown, a Democrat, visited Columbus Friday to announce Ohio’s need for additional funds.

Characterizing the Buckeye state as being on the frontline of the housing crisis, Brown noted Ohio ranks sixth in the nation for the total number of homeowners who owe more on their properties than they’re worth, based on a report from the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio, a nonprofit housing assistance agency.

Yet, Brown said, Ohio was not included among award winners in the Help for the Hardest-Hit Housing Markets program announced by President Barack Obama last month. Also known as 4HP, the program will spread $1.5 billion in leftover bank bailout funds to states with declining housing stock. Nevada, Arizona, California, Florida and Michigan were chosen to receive the money.

“Too many Ohioans are trying to modify their mortgages so they can hold onto their homes, but getting nothing but the run-around from their lenders,” Brown said. “Too many communities are seeing vacant and abandoned properties that lower surrounding property values and compromise economic development.”

Elizabeth is one of two fire departments in southeast Ohio to get such a grant.

Fire Chief Dale Waugh said the money will be used for roughly a dozen new firefighter air packs, a compressor system to fill the air packs, a thermal imaging camera, spare air bottles and other miscellaneous items.

“This is great because it’s something we haven’t been able to do (on our own). We bought a few air packs but some are from back in the ‘70s and ‘80s. A lot of them still have the old steel bottles,” Waugh said. “The new ones will be fiberglass and should weigh about a third, maybe a fourth of what the steel bottles weigh.” And we should get 40 minutes of air time instead of 20 minutes.”

The Ohio Public Employees Retirement System "has concerns about future involvement" with the business if the plant closes, OPERS wrote in a letter to Permira Advisors, the private equity firm that owns Hugo Boss.

The decision to close the plant will cost hundreds of jobs and "implicates" OPERS because the system invested in Permira Advisors, OPERS Chairman Ken Thomas and Chief Executive Officer Chris DeRose wrote Feb. 25.

"The board finds it unfortunate to have to address a question of Ohio job loss as an investor in the fund," according to the letter, sent at the urging of union workers.

While no breakthroughs were made Thursday and legislative details remained elusive, hope remained alive that senators could deliver President Barack Obama a sweeping financial reform package within weeks.

Senate Banking Chairman Chris Dodd huddled with most of the Democrats on his committee late Thursday, briefing them on his on-going negotiations with Republicans over the legislation's most divisive element: consumer protection. Dodd and his chief negotiating Republican partner, Bob Corker of Tennessee, have been working on a conceptual plan to build a new consumer protection division at the Federal Reserve – an idea that remained on the table despite harsh criticism from the members on the left, who blame the Fed for setting the stage for the economic meltdown.

Dodd’s Democratic colleagues emerged from the hour-plus meeting in his Russell offices sounding optimistic notes.

Democrats still have “a few differences but I think it’s coming together,” said Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.), stressing – as every senator did – that nothing has been agreed to yet.

“I think we’re going generally in the right direction,” said Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), one of several key Democrats who had greeted the Fed-based consumer body with skepticism. “We’re working for the best consumer protection [entity] possible,” he said.

Brown reiterated his preference for a stand-alone Consumer Financial Protection Agency – the administration’s preferred proposal – but acknowledged that it might not be possible to pass a bill with a separate new agency.